From: Jan de Koning (jan@dekoning.ca)
Date: Mon Nov 17 2003 - 21:39:27 EST
At 09:20 AM 17/11/2003 -0500, Kenneth Piers wrote:
>REPLY: While my colleague, Loren, is very likely correct about the teaching of
>YEC at Calvin Theological Seminary, it should also be said that the preacher
>employed by the radio ministry of the Christian Reformed Church (The Back of
>God Hour) is a strong supporter of YEC and has preached a series of sermons on
>the Genesis text along these lines. It is also true that both Calvin College
>and Calvin Seminary enroll many students who are supporters of YEC -
>presumably
>most of these come from homes and/or schools where YEC was the prevailing
>paradigm. Some of these students are deeply offended when presented with
>criticisms of YEC in the classroom; others are courageous enough to
>examine the
>basis of their own beliefs in YEC and begin the pathway to a more nuanced
>position or may even reject YEC altogether in favor of a less literal
>understanding of Genesis.
>These thoughts remind me of a situation that my daughter found herself in
>during her first year of teaching high school biology in a small Christian
>High
>School in Ontario, Canada about fifteen years ago. During one of her
>classes in
>biology, she must have used the word "evolution" in one of her classes
>(but not
>in the context of any creation-evolution discussion, simply in the context of
>teaching a biology lesson). A few days later she got a note from her principal
>saying that she would have to appear before the School Board to defend herself
>on the charge that she was teaching or promoting evolution in the
>classroom. By
>this time she had already forgotten that she had used the E-word in her class
>and had no idea what this charge was about. As it turned out one of her
>students went home and told her father (who was on the School Board and an
>aggressive supporter of YEC - this is a man whom Howard knows quite well too
>from withering condemnations directed his way by this same person) that my
>daughter had used the E-word in class. So without any contact with my
>daughter,
>or any discussion at all about the context in which that word was used,
>she was
>haled before the Board on these trumped up charges. Needless to say, although
>she completed her teaching year at that school, she found her experience there
>so off-putting that she decided that there must be easier ways to make a
>living
>and left teaching altogether.
>I believe that YEC continues to be a strong force in the constituency that is
>served by Calvin College and Calvin Seminary. While I can accept YEC
>supporters
>as fellow believers (some of my siblings continue to be YECists), it is
>exceedingly tragic that many YECists have difficulty granting the same
>privilege to persons who have different views from theirs.
>respectfully,
>ken piers
In reply:
I wonder which Christian Highschool in Ontario that could be. I have had 6
children on a Chrsitian Highschool in Ontario, 5 grandchildren in the same
school, 4 grandchildren in another Ontario Christian Highschool, and to my
knowledge it could not be in any of these schools.
Also, let me point to report 28 to synod 1991, and art.117 of that synod.
The great majority of the study-committee, 9 out of 10, supported the right
to teach "evolution" and advised the church NOT to require the denial of
evolution. Synod approved that report.
I admit, that some well-known preachers in the Christian Reformed Church
preach YEC, which I think is a shame after what synod said. However,
asking him to not touch the subject any more would cause more of an
upheaval than it is worth.
However, in a seminary where the students should learn, hot issues should
not be avoided. But , than both sides should be taught thoroughly,
including statements of very well-known Reformed professors of the 19th and
20th century, who refused to deny evolution.
My uncle, J.de Koning Th.D., pastor, who died in a concentration camp,
wrote in 1940 that chapters 1 - 11 in Genesis could not be read
"literally". One must take into account several facts, among others the
way Gen. handles numbers. Prof.Vollenhoven pointed several places in the
early chapters of the Bible, which when read in the original, should have
been translated differently. While I do not want to start another
discussion on this subject, I do think that talking about these subjects by
theologians and others, as if they are teaching the doctrine of the
Chr.Ref.Church does great harm to that church and its institutions. And,
if I become aware of it in my neighbourhood I will indeed fight it, since
it is NOT a doctrine of the Chr.Ref.Church, nor should it be.
Professors at Calvin Seminary may teach that it exists and why some think
it is that way, but if they know any Hebrew, they know as well that Hebrew
as spoken in the OT, is not to be compared with literal English.
BTW Jesus spoke often in parables which were not "true" in the sense of
being a literal description of what happened.
If I had the time at the moment I would try to find again the places where
Kuyper, Bavinck and my uncle said these things.
Jan de Koning
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Nov 17 2003 - 21:33:21 EST